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active liveschildren and youngpeople survey

attitudes towardssport and physical

activity (academic year 2017/18)

Published March 2019

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Creating a lifelong sporting habit

▪ Attitudes and wider outcomes

welcome contents

▪ Key findings

▪ Positive attitudes

▪ Attitudes and activity levels

key information

This report presents data from the

Active Lives Children and Young

People Survey for the academic year

2017/18. Data is presented for

children and young people in school

Years 1-11 (ages 5-16) in England.

release dates

This release: 21 March 2019

Next release: TBC

find out moreFor further information on the data

presented in this report, please visit the

Active Lives section of our website.

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Welcome to the second part of the Active Lives Children and Young People Survey year

1 results. This report represents the richest ever data exploring how children and young

people aged 5-16 in England feel about sport and physical activity, measured between

September 2017 and July 2018.

The last report revealed that although 43% of children and young people lead active

lives, there is much more to do to increase activity levels at every age, whilst also

addressing some significant inequalities – including gender and affluence. To help with

that challenge, this report focuses on the five elements of physical literacy – enjoyment,

confidence, competence, understanding and knowledge. It identifies which of those

elements – both individually and in combination – have the biggest impact on increasing

levels of activity, mental wellbeing, resilience and social trust.

It’s well understood that increasing activity levels will make an important contribution to

improved physical wellbeing, but the data presented helps us better understand how

delivered in the right way, sport and physical activity can also contribute to better mental

wellbeing, individual development and social and community development outcomes for

children and young people.

The intention of this report is to summarise the key findings. We hope it becomes a

valuable, practical tool to help the wide range of organisations with an interest in

providing children’s sport and physical activity understand and recognise the importance

of how children feel, alongside what activity they do.

Finally, I would like to record my thanks to colleagues within the Department for Digital,

Culture, Media and Sport, the Department of Health and Social Care and the

Department for Education who have been key partners in the delivery of this survey, the

network of Active Partnerships who have recruited the schools to take part and finally

the schools, children, parents and teachers who took the time to complete the survey.

Lisa O’Keefe Insight Director

Background 4

▪ Socio-demographic variations 20

▪ Notes 27

▪ Next steps 26

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key findings

Children and young people’s attitudes to sport and physical activity are key to understanding their levels of activity,

mental wellbeing, resilience and social trust.

These findings will be used to inform a new attitudes-led market segmentation of children and young people.

More details on our next steps can be found on page 26.

Physically literate children and young people

are happier, more resilient and more trusting

of other children and young people

The more elements of physical literacy present,

the higher the levels of happiness, resilience and

social trust.

Physical literacy declines with age

As children and young people grow older, they

report lower levels of enjoyment, confidence,

competence and understanding.

There are important inequalities that must

be tackled

Girls and those from less affluent families are less

likely to enjoy being active.

Physically literate children and young people

are more likely to be active

Physical literacy has five elements – enjoyment,

confidence, competence, understanding and

knowledge. The more elements present, the more

active a child or young person is likely to be.

Enjoyment is the biggest driver of activity

While all of the reported attitudes make a

difference, enjoying sport and physical activity

makes the biggest difference to activity levels.

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the report has five key findings:

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Creating a lifelong sporting habit

background

The Government’s Sporting

Future strategy identified that:

“Opportunity for children to take

part in and develop a love of

sport and physical activity is vital

to ensuring their long-term

enjoyment and participation.”

The survey helps us understand

the relationship between

attitudes, activity levels and wider

outcomes. However, it does not

establish what causes positive (or

negative) experiences. As a next

step, we’ll be generating a market

segmentation of children and

young people based on these

attitudes (see page 26).

understandingattitudes

understanding attitudes towards sport

and physical activity is key

In December 2018, we published the first data from the Active Lives

Children and Young People Survey, revealing that while 3 million

children are active, 2.3m do not reach at least an average of 30

minutes a day (are less active).

This report builds on that analysis to look at the attitudes of children

and young people to sport and physical activity, and most importantly

how this impacts on their activity levels, mental wellbeing, resilience

and levels of social trust.

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definitions

The International Physical

Literacy Association’s definition

of physical literacy has five

elements: enjoyment,

confidence, competence,

understanding and knowledge.

The organisation says these help

an individual “value and take

responsibility for engagement in

physical activities for life”.

Source: The International Physical Literacy Association

We used this definition to

develop statements covering

each of the five attitudes that we

added to the survey.

When talking about individual attitude statements, we report where a child strongly

agrees1 with a statement as evidence of positive feelings towards it. For example, where a

child strongly agrees that they enjoy taking part in sport, we describe that child as enjoying

sport and physical activity. These statements were developed by an expert advisory group

commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Sport England.

positive attitudes

1By looking specifically at those who “strongly agree”, we both mitigate the tendency

of children and young people to “agree” to socially desirable statements, and focus on

how the firmest attitudes relate to activity and health and social outcomes.

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positive attitudes

half of children and young people enjoy sport and physical activity

The majority of children and young people feel they understand why exercise and sports is good for them, but

just 51% strongly agree that they enjoy taking part, meaning 49% are not likely to receive the full benefits of

doing so.

Levels of feeling confident when taking part or finding sport easy (competence) are lower.

Years 1-2 (ages 5-7)

children

• The majority love being

active (63%) and love

playing sport (61%).

• 83% find sport easy.

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definitions

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY?Activity Levels are broken into:

• Active every day (at least

60 minutes every day)

• Active across the week (an average of at least 60

minutes a day, but not every

day)

• Fairly active(an average of 30-59 minutes

a day)

• Less active (less than an

average of 30 minutes a day).

attitudes and activity levels

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physically literate children and young people are more likely to be active

There’s a strong positive association between activity levels and enjoying it, feeling confident when taking

part and knowledge of how to get involved or improve. Over half of children and young people who strongly

agree that they enjoy taking part in exercise and sports are active – either every day or across the week. In

contrast, the majority who strongly disagree are less active.

While not as strong as it is with the other three attitudes, there’s still a clear positive association between

activity levels and finding sport easy (competence) and understanding why taking part is good for them.

Years 1-2 (ages 5-7)

children

Of those who love

playing sport, 54% are

active (every day or

across the week),

compared with 47% of

those who like playing

sport.

There’s no association

between finding sport

easy and levels of

activity.

“i enjoy taking part in exercise and sports”years 3-11(ages 7-16)

attitudes and activity levels

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enjoyment is the biggest driver of activity levels

Further analysis highlights the importance of the combination (and number) of

positive attitudes, with enjoyment being the key driver (see darker outlines).

Understanding the chart

The ticks in the table represent

which attitudes are present. The

numbers indicate the relative

difference in minutes of activity.

See page 29 for more details.years 3-6, activity levels outside school by positive attitudes

attitudes and activity levels

link to appendices

higher

lower

Relative

difference in

minutes of

activity

Strong agreement with all four attitudes drives the greatest number of minutes

– more than twice as many compared to strongly agreeing to none of them.

Index of

relative difference:

Enjoyment is the key driver of activity levels –

those who strongly agree that they enjoy taking

part do 33% more minutes of activity than those

who don’t. In addition, combinations of attitudes

including enjoyment drive more minutes of activity.

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definitionsattitudes and wider outcomes

This chapter presents data

looking at the associations

between attitudes and wider

outcomes for children and young

people, both overall and linked to

their levels of engagement in

sport and physical activity.

Measures covered are:

• Mental wellbeing (happiness)

• Individual development

(resilience)

• Social and community

development (social trust).

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Sport Satellite

Accounts

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attitudes and mental wellbeing

physically literate children and young people are happier

Those who strongly agree that they enjoy taking part have an average happiness score of 7.7 out of 10. This falls to

4.5 for those who strongly disagree. A similar pattern is seen for all the other attitudes.

“How happy did you feel yesterday?” years 3-11 (ages 7-16)(mean score out of 10, where 10 is very happy and 0 is not happy at all)

Years 1-2 (ages 5-7) children

All attitude statements are positively

associated with happiness.

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the more elements of physical literacy present, the higher the levels of happiness

years 3-6, happiness by positive attitudes

Understanding the chart

The ticks in the table represent which

attitudes are present. The numbers

indicate the likelihood of reporting a

higher happiness score. See page 29

for more details.

Further analysis highlights the importance of the combination (and number) of

attitudes present. For Years 3-6 (ages 7-11), understanding why taking part is

good for them is the lowest driver of happiness (see darker outlines).

attitudes and mental wellbeing

Younger children with all four positive attitudes (and older children with all five positive

attitudes) are three times as likely to report a higher happiness score than those with none.link to appendices

higher

lower

Likelihood

of reporting a

higher

happiness

scoreIndex of

relative difference:

For younger children, understanding has less impact than

the other attitudes – those who strongly agree that they

understand why sport is good for them are 22% more likely

to report a higher happiness score than those who don’t.

For older children, understanding is not the lowest driver.

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positive attitudes are a stronger driver of happiness than activity levels

The highest happiness levels are seen where children and young people have both positive attitudes and are active

(either every day or across the week). However, when a positive attitude is not present, there’s little difference in

happiness, regardless of whether a child or young person is active or not.

impact of attitudes and activity levels on happiness: years 3-11 (ages 7-16) (mean score out of 10, where 10 is very happy and 0 is not happy at all)

attitudes and mental wellbeing

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attitudes and resilience

physically literate children and young people are more resilient

Of children and young people who strongly agree that they find sport and exercise enjoyable, 51% report high levels of

resilience. This falls to 16% for those who strongly disagree. The same pattern is seen for the other attitudes.

There’s similarly a strong association between the number of positive attitudes and resilience.

“if i find something difficult, i keep trying until i can do it” years 3-11 (ages 7-16)(proportion who strongly agree)

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Further analysis highlights the importance of the combination (and number)

of positive attitudes present. For Years 3-6 (ages 7-11), feeling confident

when taking part and understanding why taking part is good for them are

the key drivers of resilience (see darker outlines).

the more elements of physical literacy present, the higher the levels of resilience

Understanding the chart

The ticks in the table represent which

attitudes are present. The numbers

indicate the likelihood of reporting

resilience. See page 29 for more details.years 3-6, resilience by positive attitudes

attitudes and resilience

link to appendices

higher

lower

Likelihood

of

reporting

resilience

Index of

relative difference:

Children and young people with all four positive attitudes are 10 times as

likely to report being resilient than someone without any positive attitudes.

For younger children, confidence and understanding have a greater impact

than the other attitudes – those who strongly agree that they’re confident when

taking part or understand why taking part is good for them, are twice as likely

to report being resilient than someone without any positive attitudes. For older

children, knowing how to get involved or improve is the key driver of resilience.

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positive attitudes are a stronger driver of resilience than activity levels

Children and young people who have positive attitudes and are active (both every day and across the week), are

more likely to be resilient. However, when a positive attitude is not present, there’s little difference in resilience,

regardless of whether children and young people are active or not.

impact of attitudes and activity on resilience: years 3-11 (ages 7-16)(proportion who strongly agree)

attitudes and resilience

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physically literate children and young people are more trusting of each other

Around 30% of children and young people who have a positive attitude to any of the statements have high levels

of social trust. This falls to around 20% for those who only agree to the statement.

There’s similarly a strong positive association between the number of positive attitudes and social trust.

“How much do you feel you can trust people of a similar age to you?” Years 3-11 (ages 7-16)(proportion who said ‘a lot’)

attitudes and social trust

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the more elements of physical literacy present, the higher the levels of social trust

years 3-6, social trust by positive attitudes

Understanding the chart

The ticks in the table represent

which attitudes are present.

The numbers indicate the

likelihood of reporting they

trust others. See page 29 for

more details.

Further analysis highlights the importance of the combination (and number) of

positive attitudes present. For Years 3-6 (ages 7-11), understanding why taking

part is good for them is the key driver of social trust (see darker outlines).

attitudes and social trust

link to appendices

higher

lower

Likelihood

of

reporting

they trust

othersIndex of

relative difference:

Children and young people with all four positive attitudes are twice as likely to report

they trust others of a similar age to them than someone with no positive attitudes.

For younger children, understanding has a greater impact than the other attitudes

– those who strongly agree that they understand why sport is good for them are

29% more likely to report trusting others of a similar age to them, than someone

with no positive attitudes. For older children, feeling confident when taking part or

knowing how to get involved or improve are the key drivers of social trust.

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positive attitudes are a stronger driver of social trust than activity levels

The highest social trust levels are seen when children and young people both have positive attitudes and are

active (both every day and across the week). However, where a positive attitude is not present, there’s little

difference in levels of social trust, regardless of whether children and young people are active or not.

impact of attitudes and activity levels on social trust: years 3-11 (ages 7-16) (proportion who said ‘a lot’)

attitudes and social trust

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definitions socio-demographic variations

The previous chapters show the clear associations between attitudes and

both activity levels and health and social outcomes. It’s also important to

understand how attitudes are distributed across demographic groups to

highlight the important inequalities that should be tackled.

The following groups are

covered:

• Age using school year

• Gender

• Socio-economic status using

the family affluence scale

• Disability using ‘needs extra

help’

• Ethnicity.

See notes page for further details

on these demographic groups.

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differences by school year

physical literacy declines with age

the presence of positive attitudes: years 3-11 (ages 7-16)(proportion who strongly agree)

Younger children are more likely to report a positive attitude than older children.

• The majority of younger children strongly agree to between one and three of the attitudes.

• Older children are most likely to strongly agree to just one or fewer.

This gap is widest for feeling confident when taking part, and is slightly narrower for understanding why

taking part is good for them.

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differences by gender

the presence of positive attitudes: years 3-11 (ages 7-16) (proportion who strongly agree)Years 1-2 (ages 5-7)

children

Boys are more likely to

love playing sport, while

girls are more likely to

love being active.

Boys are slightly more

likely than girls to say

they find sport easy.

Boys are more likely to report a positive attitude than girls across all statements. This gap is widest for finding

sport and physical activity enjoyable and feeling confident when taking part.

girls are less likely to enjoy being active than boys

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differences by family affluence

the presence of positive attitudes: years 3-11 (ages 7-16) (proportion who strongly agree)

Those from the least affluent families are less likely to report positive attitudes to sport and exercise. The gap is

narrowest for finding sport easy (competence).

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those from the least affluent families are less likely to enjoy being active

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differences by disability

Children and young people with a disability are less likely to report they enjoy taking part, they feel confident

when taking part and they understand why taking part is good for them, than those without a disability.

There’s no difference for finding sport easy (competence) and knowing how to get involved or improve.

the presence of positive attitudes: years 3-11 (ages 7-16) (proportion who strongly agree)

understanding of why taking part is good for them is lower for children and young people with a disability

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differences by ethnicity

Black children and young people are more likely to report they enjoy taking part, they feel confident when

taking part and they know how to get involved or improve, than those from other ethnic groups.

In contrast, Asian children and young people are less likely to report they find sport easy (competence)

than those from other ethnic groups.

the presence of positive attitudes: years 3-11 (ages 7-16) (proportion who strongly agree)

black children are more physically literate than all other ethnic groups

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Creating a lifelong sporting habit

segmentation

Market segmentation is the

process of dividing the population

into groups, or segments, based

on different characteristics – in

this case their attitudes towards

sport and physical activity.

Grouping individuals in this way

will let us tailor delivery in a more

informed way to maximise the

impact we have.

next steps

We’ll build on this analysis by creating a market segmentation of

children and young people in England. This will be based on their

sport and physical activity behaviours and attitudes, supplemented

by wider market insight.

We hope to start sharing resources from this later in 2019.

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notesdata considerations

the achieved sample

Attitudinal responses: 130,194 (pupils in

Years 1-11)

Behavioural responses: 109,503 (parents of

pupils in Years 1-2 and pupils in Years 3-

11).

data have been weighted to Department for

Education pupil population estimates from

the January 2016 school census for

geography and key demographics.

confidence intervals can be found in the

linked tables. These indicate that if

repeated samples were taken and

confidence intervals computed for each

sample, 95% of the intervals would contain

the true value. Only significant differences

are reported within the commentary. Where

results are reported as being the same for

two groups, any differences fall within the

margin of error.

the active lives children and

Young People survey is an online

surveyCarried out by Ipsos MORI, it involves

online questionnaires being completed

in school during lesson time. Parents of

Years 1-2 children are asked to

complete a separate online

questionnaire providing behavioural

data for these children – the children

themselves answer basic questions

about their attitudes only.

More information on the survey can be

found here.

Link to more information onmeasures and demographics

definitions

moderate activity is defined as activity

where you raise your heart rate and feel a

little out of breath (children were asked

whether it made them breathe faster).

At school refers to activity done while at

school, during normal school hours. It

includes activities in PE lessons and break

times, but excludes activities at before and

after school clubs, even if these take place

at school.

outside School refers to activity done

outside of school hours. It includes anything

done before getting to school and after

leaving school (including travel to/from), as

well as activity done at the weekend, on

holiday days and at before and after school

clubs, even if these took place at school.

Associations

Where associations between attitudes and

activity levels, mental wellbeing, individual

development or community development

are referenced, this doesn’t tell us about

causality. We don’t know the direction of

the association or whether we’re seeing a

direct or indirect link.

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notesAge

The survey is undertaken in schools, therefore

we have used school year as the main age

variable. This is split into three groups:

• Years 1-2 (ages 5-7)

• Years 3-6 (ages 7-11)

• Years 7-11 (ages 11-16).

gender

Children and young people were given the option

to select boy, girl, other or prefer not to say.

Responses to ‘other’ are included in the data

tables but not presented in this report due to low

sample sizes.

family affluence scale

The Family Affluence Scale provides an

indication of the social status of children and

young people’s families. The scale is derived

from a series of questions about their home and

family such as car ownership, computers, and

foreign holidays. Care should be taken when

looking across year groups, as the age of the

child is likely to impact on certain elements of the

scale (e.g. families with older children may be

more likely to own digital devices and travel

abroad).

Link to more information onmeasures and demographics

Standard demographic breakdowns

are not applicable for children of all

ages, therefore simpler questions

were often used.

disability

Limiting disability is defined as an individual

reporting they have a physical or mental health

condition or illness that has lasted or is

expected to last 12 months or more, and that

this has a substantial effect on their ability to

do normal daily activities. Here, we just ask

about disability without the reference to it being

limiting or long term. A slightly adapted version

of the standard Office for National Statistics

(ONS) harmonised disability question (to make

the language appropriate to children) is asked

to parents of children in Years 1-2 and to

young people in Years 7-11. However,

comparisons shouldn’t be made as parents

and young people are likely to respond

differently. A simpler question, ‘do you need

additional help’, is asked of Years 3-6 children.

This gets higher levels of agreement.

ethnicity

Children and young people in Years 3-11 were

asked a simplified question about ethnicity,

while parents of Years 1-2 children were asked

the full ONS standard question. For the

purposes of analysis, Chinese has been

grouped with ‘Other’ from the parent

responses.

demographic groups for children

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notesdrivers analysis

The analytical technique used to establish

drivers of behaviours is regression analysis.

This is a statistical technique which reveals

associations between children’s activity levels

(or outcomes) with each of their personal

socio-demographic characteristics and their

agreement or not to the attitude statements. It

reveals which characteristics are influential for

the activity time being modelled.

Characteristics may show complex

relationships with each other. For example, the

effect of an attitude may be different for boys

and girls, therefore ‘main effects’ were

calculated for each attitude indicating the

impact of the presence of that attitude,

regardless of the other attitudes and socio-

demographic characteristics.

Specifically:

• A reference group was set (with index 1.00)

based on those who do not strongly agree to

all attitude statements AND those who are

male, from high affluence families, do not

have a disability, are from white British

backgrounds and are in Years 6-7

(primary/secondary analysis).

data considerations1. Analysis was only undertaken on

data with complete information.

2. Analysis was split by Years 1-2,

Years 3-6 and Years 7-11 age

groups.

3. Moderate minutes of sport and

physical activity were analysed by

both at school and outside

school separately.

4. Happiness was analysed on a 10-

point scale. For infant, happiness

was analysed by agree vs

neutral/disagree.

5. Resilience and trust were analysed

by strongly agree vs do not

strongly agree.

6. Attitudes were analysed by those

who strongly agree vs those who

do not strongly agree. For infant,

‘find sport easy’ was analysed by

yes vs no.

see appendices

• The main effects were translated into

indices to be compared to the reference

group. An index of 1.25 indicates a 25%

greater likelihood to report the measure in

question (i.e. minutes of activity, happiness,

resilience or trust).

• Main effects were also combined to look at

the impact of combinations of attitudes on

the measure, again being translated into

indices to aid interpretation.

We should consider findings as giving us broad

indications, rather than seeing it as a cause

and effect model.